Paint rollers have gained wide acceptance as the implement of choice for spreading a coating on many flat surfaces. Coatings such as paint, stain, varnish, sealer, waterproofing and the like may be readily applied with a roller to horizontal and vertical surfaces by essentially untrained operators with generally acceptable results. A wide variety of paint rollers assemblies are currently available, the "standard" roller including a replaceable roller cover, a barrel or cage portion for supporting the roller cover, and a frame with a handle. Roller covers are available in a wide variety of naps designed for painting a variety of surface textures ranging from smooth (such as finished plaster) to extremely rough surfaces, such as stucco. When a conventional paint roller is used in a corner (i.e., where two perpendicular surfaces meet), one of two outcomes is desired. Sometimes, it is desirable to prevent the coating being applied to one of the surfaces from contacting the adjoining, intersecting surface. More often however, the coating being applied will be continued from the first surface onto the second surface. Traditional paint rollers exhibit notoriously poor performance in corners, often necessitating the painter "cutting in" the corners with a conventional paint brush or similar tool. "Cutting in" is an informal term for correcting unsatisfactory results by an alternative manual painting method.